Day 5 - Northward ho!

Today is the first day of our mini "road-trip" from Texas to Colorado, crossing New mexico in the process. We had planned two days for the journey but having crossed Texas we had second and even third thoughts about whether we could manage it and fit in some sight seeing too. Hey ho, we'd just have to arrive later than planned if it didn't work out.

We set out from Alpine and headed for Marfa - I only mention the place because I can't believe anyone would call a place Marfa with a F! The plan was to head for Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. That bit of road was dull but once we started up towards New Mexico and the mountains the scenery and the sky started to get more dramatic. We drove towards the Guadalupe mountains and came across the highest peak thrusting itself in to the sky. We stopped to take pictures and drink in the scenery and then, in what was becoming the trend of the trip, the rain came down. We made it to the Carlsbad caverns and joined the crowds, we had forgotten it was memorial day weekend so the hordes were out and about looking for entertainment. The caverns are huge and deep. We bought tickets and walked down and down and down. The entrance is a huge gash in the ground and as we descended the light went. Lighting is kept dim in the caverns to protect the environment and to stop the bat colony getting lost and sucking the blood from tourists instead of stuffing themselves with fat insects. It has to be said that the vast majority of the visitors should be gagged before they descend as they are incapable of speaking in a whisper and some of the others should be told that a cave is an environment that needs to be experienced and it isn't just a 30 second photo opportunity. Rant over. We walked down in to the caverns passing people who weren't capable of walking a mile without a rest (enough said on that subject too) and then did the big loop of the main cavern taking a few photo's until the camera died a horrible screaming death (in a whisper cos it's a well behaved camera that knows how to conduct itself in a large echoing cavern). Trip over we took the elevator back to the surface (yep, we're lazy) to find out that, guess what? it was raining! We headed off to find a bed for the night and decided to aim for the mountains with the aim of visiting White Sands in the morning. We ended up high in the mountains at a place called Cloudcroft. Spotting a vacancy sign we pulled over and tried the door. It looked all closed up, very psycho-esque even, but we rang the bell and after a few minutes the door was opened by a very nice man who didn't say "Call me Norman..." and a room was secured for the night. We celebrated by going straight to bed and falling asleep.